Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 80942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“What do you intend to do?”
“Let me deal with her.”
I didn’t want Lia to find out under the current circumstances, but it’s long overdue. She would’ve figured it out sooner or later.
It’s not that I purposely tried to hide it, but the conditions weren’t right at the time. Judging from the way Lia glared at me, they still aren’t.
But there’s one thing my dear wife seems to forget.
She once labeled me her villain, and that’s the most accurate label she’s ever given me.
As is true with any villain, right or wrong is never black or white.
It’s always gray.
15
Lia
By the time we reach home, I’m fuming.
No, that’s an understatement.
I feel as if my emotions have reached the boiling point and will now spill over, leaving only havoc behind.
Not only am I sure my husband is behind my ex-colleague’s disappearance, but he also never thought about mentioning it to me. I wish I was being paranoid or distrustful or that I was merely assuming the worst about the situation.
I wish what I’m thinking was tied to my insecurities and painful memories.
But I’ve known Adrian for six years. And those six years started with me witnessing him finish a life. A life that he ended because the Italian men were watching me.
So no, I’m not paranoid to assume that he hurt Ryan somehow, that he’s the reason a lead dancer who was extremely disciplined when it came to work, disappeared without a trace.
Jeremy fell asleep on Adrian’s lap on the ride back and it took everything in me not to snap at my husband while his men were present.
After we get inside, Adrian carries Jeremy to his room. I go straight to the bedroom and keep the door open so that I can watch in case he decides to go to his office and ignore me.
I remove my coat and throw it on a nearby chair as I pace the length of the room. My body is burning with pent-up frustration to the level that even the air feels suffocating.
Soon enough, Adrian walks in and closes the door behind him. Before the click has barely echoed in the air, I’m in his face. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
He turns away, simultaneously removing his coat. Oblivious to the change of atmosphere, he takes his time with the task, unhurriedly sliding it down his arms and hanging it up as if he has all the time in the world. Even his expression is neutral, unperturbed. “Something, like what?”
“Like, I don’t know, an incident that happened about six years ago?”
“A lot happened around six years ago, Lenochka. I met you, fucked you for the first time, put a baby in you, and married you. You’ll have to specify.”
“Ryan,” I grind out. “Is that specific enough for you?”
A shadow crossing his features is the only change in his demeanor before his composed expression returns as he unbuttons the cuffs of his shirt and rolls them over his defined forearms. “Ryan who?”
“Are you going to pretend you don’t even know him?”
“I’ve met a few Ryans in my life.”
“My co-lead, Ryan.”
“Former co-lead.”
“So you do remember him.”
“Yes. What about him?”
“What did you do to him, Adrian?”
“Why ask a question you already know the answer to?”
I stagger backward, my jaw nearly hitting the ground. “You’re…you’re not even going to try to deny it?”
“Why would I?”
“You killed someone!”
“He was neither the first nor the last.”
“No…no, Adrian! He’s not like the criminals you’ve killed. He was a dancer with a bright future ahead of him and you…you just ended it as if it never existed.”
“Just like he ended your career.”
I gasp, covering my mouth with my trembling hands as the clash of what he’s said ripples through me like an aftershock. The complete apathy he speaks with renders me speechless, unable to gather my scattering thoughts and put them into words.
Having lived more than half a decade with him, I should’ve been used to his cold, unfeeling side by now. I should’ve considered his aloofness normal. But I guess someone like me will never be able to overlook that side of him, and I sure as hell will never understand it.
I let my hands fall to my sides as I hold on to a quivering thread of logic. “I jumped earlier than I was supposed to. It was an accident, not Ryan’s fault.”
“Yes, it was. Yan witnessed it and I saw it on the footage. Kolya and Boris did, too. That fucker could’ve caught you but chose not to.”
“And you saw all that through some footage?”
“Correct, because, unlike you, I read the worst in people before the good. In fact, I only see their bad side, and that blond bastard deserved every bullet I emptied into his body.”
My lips shake and nausea assaults me at the sadistic undertone in his voice. The tone that implies he enjoyed every second of killing Ryan and is not the least bit remorseful about it.